How-To Geek

Troubleshooting router issues almost always starts with simple advice along the lines of 'have you tried turning it off and then on again,' but when you have to dig deeper, it's the wild, wild west out there. One of the more important pieces of advice that I don't see cropping up often is that you should actually set up router alerts to know what's happening to your network at all times.

Which side of this streaming debate do you fall on: weekly releases or binge-watching? I don't care if I'm called a dinosaur. I prefer weekly releases when it comes to television. Don't get me wrong, there is a time and place for binge-watching. I've knocked out seasons of television before in one sitting. It happens.

On most Android phones, the stock keyboard has internet access and sends data to its remote servers to power features like predictions, voice typing, and personalization. It's not always clear what data they're uploading, how much, or what it's being used for. And while they aren't keyloggers, exactly, it is a privacy concern.

Your NAS probably has several free USB ports that you might be tempted to put to use with any number of peripherals. Most of them are fine, but there are a handful that you should avoid. At best, some low-quality peripherals might make your NAS less reliable than it would be otherwise. At worst, they could physically damage it.

Home Assistant includes a built-in tool for generating images using AI. AI Task has been around since 2025, with image generation added in Home Assistant 2025.10, but you may still be completely unaware of it. Once you know how to use it, it can be very useful.

Businesses often sell thin clients by the pallet (literally) whenever their leases end or the devices reach end-of-life, and as a result, you can regularly find them on eBay or Facebook marketplace for $15 to $25. With a few open-source projects, you can repurpose one of these tiny, low-power devices to replace Google's DNS server and improve your network's security and privacy simultaneously

If you've spent any real time trying to use an AI coding tool inside VS Code, you've probably hit the wall where the agent starts forgetting what it already did, loops back over resolved errors, or grinds to a halt because the context window is filled up with terminal noise. Antigravity doesn't have that problem thanks to the recent upgrade to 2.0. It's so good that I was able to build an RSS reader with it and some used it to understand complex codebases. I didn't once have to readjust or remind it what we were doing.

I love a good movie. There’s nothing like settling down in front of the TV for a couple of hours of entertainment. I have a terrible habit of picking up my phone when I should be watching, but I managed to improve things with the help of a cheap NFC tag.

I've been using a Pixel 10 Pro for almost three months now, and I really like the Pixel experience. Its fluidity is unmatched despite the SoC not being on par with what other flagships are packing, its cameras are very good, I love the breadth of useful features, the screen is fantastic, battery life is not too shabby, and the phone as a whole offers one of the best Android experiences out there.

If you've ever had a favorite corner of the internet just disappear on you, you know how quietly devastating that is. Everything online exists at someone else's discretion—their server, their decision, their hosting bill. You can either accept that impermanence or do something about it. I chose to do something about it, especially when I saw it cost me nothing and only took an afternoon to set up.

Transcoding is an unavoidable part of both the Plex and Jellyfin experiences. When it's required, converting your videos in real time into a format that your client devices can handle is slow and resource-heavy and is the main cause of buffering and stuttering. But you can speed it up significantly by enabling hardware acceleration on both platforms. The big difference is that on Plex, you have to pay for it. On Jellyfin, it's free.

Ask any hobbyist or DIYer about the goodies in their toolbox, and they'll happily talk your ear off about Milwaukee drills, DeWalt impact drivers, or that oscillating multitool that changed their life. That’s totally fair, and I have a few of those essential tools, too, for my endless puttering. But the items I reach for most often don't have a motor, a blade, or even a moving part.

If your PC has been feeling slow lately, you've probably already tried the obvious restart fix. Sometimes that works for a while, but the same slowdown creeps back within days. There are a few things you can do that go beyond random online tips. I have done these, and they work really well.

Home Assistant has its very own voice assistant called Assist. It comes with some pre-trained wake words you can use for voice commands, including "Okay Nabu," "Hey Jarvis," and "Hey Mycroft." I wanted to create my own custom wake word, and doing so was far easier than I expected.

The Tundra has been Toyota's full-size truck offering in the United States since 1999, competing in a segment long dominated by the Detroit Three. The third-generation Tundra arrived in 2022, the beneficiary of a complete redesign that underpins the current 2026 model year truck.

In an attempt to learn more about my sleeping habits, I purchased an Oura Ring at the end of last year. After wearing the ring to bed for nearly half a year, I didn’t feel like the information was worth burning $6 every month. So, I switched to RingConn—a company that doesn’t keep charging you after you buy its product.

Even if you’re not the biggest Android fanatic, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of the legendary Developer Options menu. It’s a treasure trove of secret settings, some of which are genuinely useful to anyone. Well, your Galaxy Watch has this hidden menu, too.

Soundbars are not a cheap piece of tech, so why ruin the sound quality of your expensive equipment by hiding it in an entertainment unit or blocking its path with furniture?

I've used AI chatbots for a long time. While standard chatbots can be useful, there are plenty of other useful things that you can use AI for. One of my most useful AI tools works completely in the background.

Home Assistant tracks all sorts of useful things, from presence in the home to energy usage. So why not add deliveries to that list and build some useful automations around them?